Asylum seeker 'rapes 10-year-old girl and gets her pregnant' in Italy

An asylum seeker has allegedly raped a 10-year-old girl and got her pregnant in a controversial migrant centre in Italy.

The 28-year-old man from Bangladesh is accused of raping the young girl at a migrant centre in San Colombano di Collio, Brescia, in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.

The centre is located in the Hotel Il Cacciatore and houses about 20 asylum seekers, according to local media.

Among them are the alleged rapist and the little girl from sub-Saharan Africa, whose mother raised the alarm on October 1 after her daughter showed sudden and 'strange' behavioural changes, like appearing cold and detached. 

After the girl disclosed the alleged assault, she was taken to a local hospital, where a test revealed that she was pregnant. The 10-year-old had an abortion soon after. 

The 28-year-old man was arrested on an aggravated sexual assault charge and was taken to a prison in Brescia, where he is awaiting trial. 

The accused reportedly gained the mother's trust as her neighbour and was often left alone with the little girl.  

The victim and her mother have been transferred to a 'protected' location elsewhere in Lombardy.

The little girl is also receiving psychological support following the alleged rape. 

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Mother and daughter were staying at the migrant centre while waiting for their request for international protection to be approved.

The centre, which was previously in the middle of heated protests, is now under investigation by the local prosecutor's office. 

In 2015, locals protested against the hotel housing migrants, but today, there is a 'climate of peaceful coexistence', according to Don Battista Dassa, the priest of the local parish.

He told local media about the rape case: 'This episode has nothing to do with migrants, we get along very well with them.

'If I hadn't read the newspaper, I wouldn't have known about this horrible event; in the four years that I've been here, I've never seen or heard anything problematic in the village because of migrants.'

The hotel manager, Giovanni Cantoni, added: 'I get along very well with [the migrants], better than with many Italians. And I have never, I repeat never, had any problems.'

Both the priest and the hotel manager said they didn't know anything about the assault until the child's mother reported it.